This invention relates to thermal heads employed in recording apparatuses using heat-sensitive recording media, and more particularly to a thermal head of simple construction which can provide recording dots of a small size.
FIG. 1 is a diagramatic plan view showing one example of a conventional, ordinary thermal head.
In FIG. 1, reference characters 1a, 1b, 1c and so on designate a group of heat generating elements, and reference characters 2a, 2b, 2c and so on designate a group of lead electrodes connected to the respective heat generating elements in a manner such that they are on one side of the group of heat generating elements and are in parallel with one another.
In the thermal head thus constructed, current is applied to the lead electrodes 2a and 2b to allow the heat generating element 1a to record data, and current is applied to lead electrodes 2b and 2c to cause the heat generating element 1b to record data, etc.
FIG. 2 is a diagramatic plan view of another example of a conventional thermal head.
In FIG. 2, reference characters 3a, 3b, 3c and so forth designate a group of heat generating elements, and reference characters 4a, 4b, 4c and so forth designate a group of lead electrodes connected to the respective heat generating elements in a manner such that they are alternately arranged on either side of the group of heat generating elements 3a, 3b, 3c, and are in parallel with one another.
In the thermal head thus constructed, in order to cause the heat generating element 3a to record data, current is applied to the lead electrodes 4a and 4b; and similarly, in order to cause the heat generating element 3b to record data, current is applied to lead electrodes 4b and 4c.
The above-described conventional thermal heads suffer from drawbacks in that it is rather difficult to arrange the heat generating elements in matrix form because the construction thereof becomes intricate, and accordingly it is also difficult to decrease the size of the recording dots.